The impact of the emotional intelligence of learners of turkish as a foreign language on reading comprehension skills and reading anxiety

Abstract

In the present study that measured the emotional intelligence of the students who were learning Turkish as a foreign language, the aim was to determine whether the emotional intelligence of the students affected their reading comprehension skills and reading anxiety. Thus, initially, the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale was adapted for foreign students after the required approvals were obtained. Then, the correlations between the emotional intelligence of the students and their reading anxiety and reading comprehension skills were investigated. The analysis of the data collected from 138 students attending İnönü University Turkish Language Learning Research and Application Center (TÖMER) demonstrated that the level of emotional intelligence of the students decreased general level reading anxiety levels (ß =-6.69). It was also concluded that general emotional intelligence level of the students increased their reading comprehension skills (ß = 9.079). Furthermore, it was determined the general emotional intelligence scores of female students (x = 3.389) were higher than male students (x = 3.181) (t = 2.944; p = 0.004 <0.05). As a result, emotional intelligence of the foreign language learning students effects on the reading comprehension skills and the reading anxiety.